“ Russia can, no more than any other State, civilize itself by murder.
A passing allusion has been made to the attempts of Nobiling and Hœdel on the emperor of Germany; to that of Passanante on King Humbert; and to those of Moncasi and Ottero on the king of Spain. It will be remembered that in 1872 a cowardly endeavor was made to blow up the carriage that contained King Alphonso’s predecessor, King Amadeo, and the latter’s gentle queen, who was at the time in very weak health, and who died soon afterwards. ”

“ Thus feeble-handed or well-meaning potentates who sought the good of their subjects, have been more exposed to criminal assaults than downright tyrants; and it is very seldom that the murderer of one of them has in any way benefited the popular cause. It may be suspected that most regicides have been madmen; on no other supposition can one explain the habitual short-sightedness of their calculations. Louis Philippe, of France, had his life attempted nineteen times. ”

“ It was not, however, until after the fearful enterprise of Orsini, on January 14, 1858, that, he got to be so seriously unnerved as to live in constant dread of assassination. Count Felice Orsini was not a mere vulgar fanatic, but a gentleman by birth, education, and fortune. An ardent patriot, and a partisan of the unification of Italy, his grudge against Napoleon III. was that the latter, when a political refugee in Italy, had joined a Freemasonic lodge, and sworn certain oaths which, by-and-by, as emperor, he had neglected to fulfil. ”

“ He was a good-natured, constitutional king, who had no power to harm a soul even had he wished to do so, which he did not; and he had a large family of grown-up sons, who were all popular, so that if he had been killed, the sceptre would have passed into younger and stronger hands than his at once. There was no sense in endeavoring to take the life of such a man. ”

“ Kings and emperors have been so many since the world began to form itself into states, and they have naturally had so many enemies, that one is inclined to marvel that so few of them should have perished by assassination. ”

“ The czar was rather surprised than upset by this man’s attempt on his life, for Nihilism had not yet begun to ferment in the land, and Korakasow was looked upon as an isolated madman; but in the following year Berezowski’s attempt gave Alexander II. infinite pain. The emperors of Russia and France were returning together from a review in the Bois de Boulogne when Berezowski—a lad of twenty—stepped forward and discharged both barrels of a pistol at once at their barouche. The pistol exploded and wounded the assassin, but it was not this that saved the life of the czar. ”

“ There have always been occasions of which a determined man could approach the person of the best-guarded monarch; and so the fact that sovereigns are generally well protected has little to do with their comparative immunity. But it is noticeable that attempts against rulers are usually made when society is in a perturbed state, and the popular respect for supreme authority has got weakened. ”

“ During Louis Philippe’s reign, and the four following years, attempts were made upon the life of Queen Victoria by Oxford in 1840, and by a workman named Francis in 1842; upon the king of Prussia, Frederick William IV., in 1844, and again in 1850; upon the present emperor of Germany, then military commander of Coblenz, in 1849; and upon Isabella, queen of Spain, in 1852. None of these attempts succeeded. Oxford, who shot at Queen Victoria while she was passing on Constitution Hill, was clearly a lunatic, and was consigned to Bedlam as such. ”

“ Nevertheless, after his offence, Parliament passed a bill enacting that flogging should be inflicted in future upon any one seeking to inflict bodily harm upon the queen, or to threaten her. It was by virtue of this act that the young fool O’Connor, who levelled a pistol at the queen in 1869, was sentenced to be imprisoned for a year, and to receive twenty strokes with a birch. The queen kindly remitted the whole punishment, and caused the boy to be supplied with funds that he might emigrate to Australia. ”

“ If, as Scott says, "a sinful heart makes feeble hand," we have a reason; but it is not the less remarkable that infernal machines, pistols aimed almost point-blank, and poignards wielded by the hands of men who do not seem to be poltroons, should so generally miss their marks. ”

“ One must add two presidents of South American republics to the list of rulers who have recently fallen victims to political zealotry. Don Gabriel Garcia Morenos, president of Ecuador, was assassinated in 1875; and Don B. Gill, president of Paraguay, perished in 1877 under similar circumstances. Of the attempts at assassination perpetrated in the Spanish republics of America—in Mexico, Chili, Peru, and elsewhere—it would be invidious to speak. They are too numerous. The newspapers bring us accounts of new ones by almost every mail ”